Learner-Generated Drawings and Feedback
Generating a drawing during learning complex information in science and math can benefit student learning, but what happens when students generate inaccurate drawings?
In two studies, we are testing the effects of providing students with different types of feedback on generative drawings and using instructor-generated drawings as opportunities for feedback. Noelle Patterson presented our Study 1 findings at the American Psychological Association in Seattle, WA in August 2024. Checkout the eTrails and Assistments site to see how we are collecting data across the United States for Study 2, in collaboration with Dr. Rachel Wong at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
Self-Regulated Learning with Instructional Videos
Instructional videos are popular and powerful mediums for learning; however, it takes a great deal of self-regulation for students to adequately learn from them. Since videos allow for students to have a considerable amount of autonomy over their own learning, they must leverage that autonomy to properly direct and manage their learning with the video.
We know self-regulation of learning is important for learning from videos but we do not know much about how self-regulated learning explicitly unfolds during video-based learning. In this study, students are thinking out-loud while learning with videos and we are coding those think-alouds for instances of self-regulated learning to map those instances onto the specific actions students take while learning with the video.
Adaptive Practice with Instructional Videos
Instructional videos are powerful tools for learning because they help students engage in generative cognitive processes by integrating visual and verbal representations into a meaningful mental model. However, researchers have found that this is not always the case, and students struggle to engage generatively with videos. This shortcoming can be ameliorated by designing videos to support generative processes via the embedding of cognitive strategies within videos and individualizing engagement in those strategies by individual learner characteristics, such as students’ prior knowledge.
In this study, students in an adaptive practice group watched an instructional video and received only those embedded practice questions with which they have little prior knowledge. Students in the static practice group received all embedded practice questions. We tested whether students in the adaptive practice group have improved post-test scores over those in the static practice group, and for learning differences between students with lower and higher prior knowledge.